Thanks for joining me on the flagship podcast of the PictureMethods blog where we deliver free insights and inspiration for photographers. The show drops on the first Friday of each month.
Most of the time, in the world of bird and wildlife photography, you want the longest telephoto lens you can find. The new Olympus 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 IS lens has an effective focal length of 200-800mm in a relatively compact, affordable form factor. If you add the M.Zuiko Digital 1.4X Teleconverter MC-14 to the Olympus 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 IS lens, you get a lens with an EFL of 1120mm. If you add the M.Zuiko Digital 2X Teleconverter MC-20 you get all the way to 1600mm EFL.
All-star wedding photographer, Roberto Valenzuela says “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect” instead of the more common “Practice Makes Perfect.” I have thought a lot about that since I heard his talk at WPPI many years ago. As I grow older, I realize that there are times when I was “practicing” my photography but practicing the wrong things. Not everything you do with a camera in your hand will necessarily drive you to your end goal.
Today’s photo is designed to illustrate the value of using symmetry in your compositions.
It’s also a good illustration of repeating objects.
The subject is my Danelectro Longhorn bass guitar. The composition tightly frames only a small portion of the instrument. This particular guitar has a very unique shape.
Topaz Labs has released an update to Sharpen AI. This major update includes a new auto-detect masking tool to generate base masks. It can detect 20 different types of subjects, including people, cars, planes, and various animals. This feature can be accessed by clicking the “Masking” brush button to the right in the file list and then “Find Objects” in the left corner.
I am hoping to provide some insight for those of you who want to level up your photography and have come to realize that buying a new camera or lens won’t (by themselves) make that happen. You need to be deliberate in your photography.
Olympus has released official guidance on the sale of the camera division to JIP. Rather than read rumor sites, you can visit Picturemethods and be confident you will find actual facts.
An old-time, professional photographer once told me that we don’t get paid to take pictures. We get paid to see things that “normal” people do not.
I once led a photo workshop to the Green Mountains of Vermont. Our group was there to photograph fall color and we had a cornucopia of opportunity everywhere we looked.
During the pandemic lockdown, I am photographing my guitar collection. I started a guitar podcast and blog and I also decided to write a book about how to photograph guitars. Because of those things, I have been testing various products that might make photographing guitars (and other subjects a little bit easier.) Whether it’s guitars, or other products that you want to document with your camera, you’re going to constantly be dealing with how to light things and how to deal with reflections and/or specular highlights. If you are a portrait photographer and need to be able to photograph people in a controlled environment, and you have very little space to work with, then a photo booth also comes to mind.
